I finally have the DVD!!! I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s a little boy’s dream come true! The television show “Man From Atlantis” is my ALL-TIME favorite TV show…EVER. There were many TV shows that had such an influence on me as a kid like Buck Rogers, The Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, The Love Boat, Charlie’s Angels, but none held me in its power than the story of the last survivor of Atlantis, Mark Harris, complete with his webbed feet and dolphin swim. The show was replete with corny scenes like this race between Mark and a dolphin:
Looking back at some of the scenes, they really look funny to me now, with its 70’s SFX that look so clumsy now in the age of CGI. To the a child in the 70’s though, that world was magical. It propelled me to spend hours in the pool trying to perfect that dolphin swim of his, dreaming a million dreams of me being able to breathe underwater. Those dreams are still so vivid to me. I could still feel the sensations of pushing water into my lungs and breathing life-giving oxygen as if I had gills. Maybe being an unhappy kid, I always dreamed of escape. And the idea of hailing a taxi cab, asking the driver to take me to Roxas boulevard, then simply jumping into Manila Bay and disappearing into the open blue of the South China Sea was an intoxicating fantasy, one that I still come back to even now that I’m much older. That’s why looking back at old TV shows bring regular nostalgia, but seeing scenes from Man From Atlantis jolts me into a time warp, and there I am again, that pigeon-breasted nerd, afraid of Mondays because the bullies await like predators preying on social flotsam like me. It’s so weird, how a low-budget flop television series could do this to me! What a nut job!
Anyway, the show only lasted one season, a year before Patrick Duffy shot into television royalty as Bobby Ewing in the hit TV series Dallas. Nobody even remembers Man from Atlantis. But to me, Patrick Duffy will always be Mark Harris. I remember posting on Facebook years ago about this TV show. I was complaining that there were no Man From Atlantis DVDs available anywhere. But apparently, Warner finally released the first movie (there were 4 movies before the 13 episodes of its only season) on DVD late last year. My friends Alvi and Rina somehow stumbled on my old post on FB and researched on it, and Rina, who’s an internet shopping expert (check out her interesting blog) found it on Amazon, ordered it for me, and earlier this afternoon, I got the DVD. So again, THANK YOU to Alvi and Rina for reuniting me and Man From Atlantis! I know this is all silly to most of you, but I take nostalgia VERY seriously.
I couldn’t find a decent copy of the opening theme on YouTube, but I found a nice French version of the OBB:
Strange Fruit 
ay adik akala ko something sleazy yung DVD kasi naman ung cover o.. haha! 😀
I love Man from Atlantis! I remember when my sister and i were much older, she would do the Man from Atlantis style whenever we would go swimming hahaha!
For me, that doesn’t sound cheesy having that rare find! When i was a kid, naisip ko rin maging parang s’ya, being able to swim the oceans and all. and befriending all underwater creatures.
I remember pa nga watching one episode where Mark Harris (played by Patrick Duffy, also part of the show Dallas) swam into the numerous tentacles of a large jellyfish (or man-o-war i think). Sobrang nabilib ako dun kaya okay na you got a copy. Sana makahanap din pala ako n’yan. Surprisingly, one season lang sya kaya olats din in the end. But the show is really a nice one to keep.
Good for you, bro!